Signs

Every where we go we see signs. STOP. ONE WAY. NO LEFT TURN. NO TURN ON RED. These are the more common ones. Well today I saw a sign of something different. If you read my last post and did some simple math you'd know it has been almost 6 weeks since I have been on a trail. Part due to time and part due to lack of a complete wheelset.

Well I got my wheelset back from Gerry a week and a half ago. All was good. I was all ready for the Triple Trail Challenge on Sept 13th. Well as the week went on the forecast got worse ad they eventually had to reschedule the event. Good thing to. 6" of rain in two days. No problem tho, the reschedule date was going to be Sept 20th. I can do this. Well then I had this idea that this week I would drive into work today and then ride my bike home. Then tomorrow morning I would get up and ride into work adn then drive home.

I got it all together....clothes at work for tomorrow in my car. A bag with a towel and all that jazz for showering. I even brought extra food to leave at work so I could pack light. I was all set. So at about 3:15 this afternoon I set out for my ride home. Things were great. I was back on my race bike even tho it was on pavement. I was roaring East bound on 9 Mile making my way home, a 30 mile ride I figure I could make in 1:45:00. I had made it to work on my road bike in an hour and a half before in the morning.

So there I was crossing city after city. Novi, gone. Farmington, behind me. Southfield, man am I making good time. Heck I am almost to Ferndale already and only been riding for 37 minutes. Then I hit the construction zone. Better play it safe and stay on the sidewalks. Well the sidewalks were missing at each intersection so I had to do some fancy riding here and there. No problem, I have seen a lot worse on the trails. Well about a mile from Ferndale I was outof sidewalk and I made the small drop to the sand. Thud! PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTT! Oh sh!t! I hopped off the bike and rolled the wheel around to get my Stans to seal it up. No good, tire went dead fast. It's then that I saw this:

and this:

Crap....Still 17 miles from home. So I unclip the pack and get my spare tube. Even tho I have Stans ZTR Olympic wheels I carry a tube in case. Well I got the tube in and guess what? Yep, it has a pinhole. Muther f@#$%^&*! So now my houseis 17 miles one way and my car is 13 miles the other way. I opt to walk East toward home and got my cell phone out. First person to call is Mr Wizzard knowing he is the #1 guy to find me a local bike shop fast. Problem was he was in his car. He said he'd call me back asap with an answer. In the mean time I called Jeff hoping he hadn't left work yet. Good news, still at his desk and said he could come get me. Jeff works in Southfield and lives close to me so I am kind of on his way home.

Gerry calls back minutes later and I tell him Jeff is coming to get me. In the mean time I told Jeff I would meet him at Pinecrest and 9 Mile which was still a mile away. As I am walking a kid comes by on his sister's bike that was too small for him but he way carrying a 5 dollar pizza while riding so I was impressed. He asked what was wrong and then I explained to him what had happened. However I spent more time trying to explain to this 12 year old why exactly it was that I didn't have tubes in my tires in the first place. It was quite comical. In the end he kept me company for the walk and offered me a slice of pizza. We got to Taco Bell where I was suppose to meet Jeff and said he had to get home.

Jeff showed up at the Taco Bell parking lot minutes later and drove me home. Thanks man, I owe you one. So what's this sign I saw? The f-ed up rim. After weeks of not riding on that bike and to get it back and on my first ride biff the wheel. I'm done. No more trail bike riding this season for me. It'll take a couple weeks to get my wheel back from Stans......if I can come up with the cash to pay for another hoop. I'm strictly on the road bike now like I have been the past 6 weeks. No Triple Trail Challenge. No Massive Fallout. Done.

In fact the ending of this part of the story leaves me telling you that my car is still in Novi. That means I still need to get up tomorrow at 4am to be out the door at 4:30 so I can ride back to work on my road bike.

What will tomorrow bring. Tune in and hopefully it will be a better story. I have 3 road tubes left and I plan to pack them all.

..................Space Available..................

Vacancy is a better way to put it. Man have I been out of the loop the past 4 weeks. So far out in fact that I had to consult my training log to find out when I was last on a trail bike.....September 9th to be exact. That morning I was on my SS at Maybury with Tim Storm and Brian McCabe. I flatted the first lap and had to walk back to the car for a tube. Once back to the car I had lost intrest in riding that morning, pulled my beach chair out, turned the car radio on and waited for Tim and Brian to come back. My Kona was in process of getting new tires from a sidewall blow out the previous week. Brian had loaned me his rear wheel of the Giant to race the Relay and I gave it back a few days later figuring I'd have my wheels back by then. I was kind of done with flats that morning and decided to chill for while in the morning sun.

Well, here we are 4 weeks later and my Kona is still upside down in the basement without a rear wheel. Gerry had laced a new set of tires on for me weeks ago only to have the rear one go flat and lose it's seat that afternoon in the car. I gave it back to him because I couldn't get it to sit again. He has yet to solve the issue and in the mean time I have been spending a lot of alone time with my road bike. As it turns out tho I really haven't had time to ride on the trail anyway and Gerry has been busy as well. I don't blame him at all for my lack of trail miles....I told him I was in no rush to get it back. But hopefully I will have it back by Monday because I'dlike to get out and ride the trail once before the Triple Trail Challenge on September 13th.

Yes Brian and I plan to go out and attempt a 50 mile ride on the 13th. It's the only day of the year that certain sections of trail are open to bikes in that area. We don't plan to try and ace it. Just plan to have fun, enjoy the cooler weather and take it all in.

More importantly I want to say I missed the big write up of the Maybury/Pontiac weekend. I had a lot going on so I was not able to make either race but even finding time to write about it was hard. So I apologize to all who raced, especially Jeff because he pulled off a win in the Men's Expert 30-39 at Pontiac that Sunday. That's not an easy thing to do. I guess he was in 3rd or 4th going into his third and final lap of a 30 mile race and just all of a sudden woke up and tore up the trail on that last loop. Wish I could have been there with him. His inspirational third lap may have pulled me up the podium. Oh well, we will never know, but a big Congrats to Jeff for his second Tailwind XC Series race win of the year. For those keeping track he won the XC Stage on the second day of the Brighton Stage Race beating out some stellar competition. This does bring up a question tho: Will Jeff Socia go Elite next season?

This weekend is the last Tailwinds XC race for 2008. Hard to believe it's already here. Haven't got the complete list of racers confirmed for this weekend but check back next week. Hopefully I won't slack anymore and get back in the game.

Keep air up in your tires and your fingers off the brakes, this weekend's venue is a fast course.

Aryn